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Several socio-cultural and biomedical risk factors for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) are modifiable. However, few studies globally have examined socio-cultural associations. To eliminate confounding of increased risk of diabetes in subsequent pregnancies, elucidating socio-cultural associations requires examination only of first pregnancies.

Fetal intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) results in abnormal cardiac function that is apparent antenatally due to advances in fetoplacental Doppler ultrasound and fetal echocardiography. Increasingly, these imaging modalities are being employed clinically to examine cardiac function and assess wellbeing in utero, thereby guiding timing of birth decisions. Here, we used a rabbit model of IUGR that allows analysis of cardiac function in a clinically relevant way. Using isoflurane induced anesthesia, IUGR is surgically created at gestational age day 25 by performing a laparotomy, exposing the bicornuate uterus and then ligating 40-50% of uteroplacental vessels supplying each gestational sac in a single uterine horn. The other horn in the rabbit bicornuate uterus serves as internal control fetuses. Then, after recovery at gestational age day 30 (full term), the same rabbit undergoes examination of fetal cardiac function. Anesthesia is induced with ketamine and xylazine intramuscularly, then maintained by a continuous intravenous infusion of ketamine and xylazine to minimize iatrogenic effects on fetal cardiac function. A repeat laparotomy is performed to expose each gestational sac and a microultrasound examination (VisualSonics VEVO 2100) of fetal cardiac function is performed. Placental insufficiency is evident by a raised pulsatility index or an absent or reversed end diastolic flow of the umbilical artery Doppler waveform. The ductus venosus and middle cerebral artery Doppler is then examined. Fetal echocardiography is performed by recording B mode, M mode and flow velocity waveforms in lateral and apical views. Offline calculations determine standard M-mode cardiac variables, tricuspid and mitral annular plane systolic excursion, speckle tracking and strain analysis, modified myocardial performance index and vascular flow velocity waveforms of interest. This small animal model of IUGR therefore affords examination of in utero cardiac function that is consistent with current clinical practice and is therefore useful in a translational research setting.

Synesthesia is a rare condition in which a stimulus from one modality automatically and consistently triggers unusual sensations in the same and/or other modalities. A relatively common and well-studied type is grapheme-color synesthesia, defined as the consistent experience of color when viewing, hearing and thinking about letters, words and numbers. We describe our method for investigating to what extent synesthetic associations between letters and colors can be learned by reading in color in nonsynesthetes. Reading in color is a special method for training associations in the sense that the associations are learned implicitly while the reader reads text as he or she normally would and it does not require explicit computer-directed training methods. In this protocol, participants are given specially prepared books to read in which four high-frequency letters are paired with four high-frequency colors. Participants receive unique sets of letter-color pairs based on their pre-existing preferences for colored letters. A modified Stroop task is administered before and after reading in order to test for learned letter-color associations and changes in brain activation. In addition to objective testing, a reading experience questionnaire is administered that is designed to probe for differences in subjective experience. A subset of questions may predict how well an individual learned the associations from reading in color. Importantly, we are not claiming that this method will cause each individual to develop grapheme-color synesthesia, only that it is possible for certain individuals to form letter-color associations by reading in color and these associations are similar in some aspects to those seen in developmental grapheme-color synesthetes. The method is quite flexible and can be used to investigate different aspects and outcomes of training synesthetic associations, including learning-induced changes in brain function and structure.

A Proboscis Extension Response Protocol for Investigating Behavioral Plasticity in Insects: Application to Basic, Biomedical, and Agricultural Research

Authors: Brian H. Smith, Christina M. Burden.

Institutions: Arizona State University.

Insects modify their responses to stimuli through experience of associating those stimuli with events important for survival (e.g., food, mates, threats). There are several behavioral mechanisms through which an insect learns salient associations and relates them to these events. It is important to understand this behavioral plasticity for programs aimed toward assisting insects that are beneficial for agriculture. This understanding can also be used for discovering solutions to biomedical and agricultural problems created by insects that act as disease vectors and pests. The Proboscis Extension Response (PER) conditioning protocol was developed for honey bees (Apis mellifera) over 50 years ago to study how they perceive and learn about floral odors, which signal the nectar and pollen resources a colony needs for survival. The PER procedure provides a robust and easy-to-employ framework for studying several different ecologically relevant mechanisms of behavioral plasticity. It is easily adaptable for use with several other insect species and other behavioral reflexes. These protocols can be readily employed in conjunction with various means for monitoring neural activity in the CNS via electrophysiology or bioimaging, or for manipulating targeted neuromodulatory pathways. It is a robust assay for rapidly detecting sub-lethal effects on behavior caused by environmental stressors, toxins or pesticides.
We show how the PER protocol is straightforward to implement using two procedures. One is suitable as a laboratory exercise for students or for quick assays of the effect of an experimental treatment. The other provides more thorough control of variables, which is important for studies of behavioral conditioning. We show how several measures for the behavioral response ranging from binary yes/no to more continuous variable like latency and duration of proboscis extension can be used to test hypotheses. And, we discuss some pitfalls that researchers commonly encounter when they use the procedure for the first time.

Laboratory-determined Phosphorus Flux from Lake Sediments as a Measure of Internal Phosphorus Loading

Authors: Mary E. Ogdahl, Alan D. Steinman, Maggie E. Weinert.

Institutions: Grand Valley State University.

Eutrophication is a water quality issue in lakes worldwide, and there is a critical need to identify and control nutrient sources. Internal phosphorus (P) loading from lake sediments can account for a substantial portion of the total P load in eutrophic, and some mesotrophic, lakes. Laboratory determination of P release rates from sediment cores is one approach for determining the role of internal P loading and guiding management decisions. Two principal alternatives to experimental determination of sediment P release exist for estimating internal load: in situ measurements of changes in hypolimnetic P over time and P mass balance. The experimental approach using laboratory-based sediment incubations to quantify internal P load is a direct method, making it a valuable tool for lake management and restoration.
Laboratory incubations of sediment cores can help determine the relative importance of internal vs. external P loads, as well as be used to answer a variety of lake management and research questions. We illustrate the use of sediment core incubations to assess the effectiveness of an aluminum sulfate (alum) treatment for reducing sediment P release. Other research questions that can be investigated using this approach include the effects of sediment resuspension and bioturbation on P release.
The approach also has limitations. Assumptions must be made with respect to: extrapolating results from sediment cores to the entire lake; deciding over what time periods to measure nutrient release; and addressing possible core tube artifacts. A comprehensive dissolved oxygen monitoring strategy to assess temporal and spatial redox status in the lake provides greater confidence in annual P loads estimated from sediment core incubations.

The microcirculation consists of blood vessels with diameters less than 150 µm. It makes up a large part of the circulatory system and plays an important role in maintaining cardiovascular health. The retina is a tissue that lines the interior of the eye and it is the only tissue that allows for a non-invasive analysis of the microvasculature. Nowadays, high-quality fundus images can be acquired using digital cameras. Retinal images can be collected in 5 min or less, even without dilatation of the pupils. This unobtrusive and fast procedure for visualizing the microcirculation is attractive to apply in epidemiological studies and to monitor cardiovascular health from early age up to old age.
Systemic diseases that affect the circulation can result in progressive morphological changes in the retinal vasculature. For example, changes in the vessel calibers of retinal arteries and veins have been associated with hypertension, atherosclerosis, and increased risk of stroke and myocardial infarction. The vessel widths are derived using image analysis software and the width of the six largest arteries and veins are summarized in the Central Retinal Arteriolar Equivalent (CRAE) and the Central Retinal Venular Equivalent (CRVE). The latter features have been shown useful to study the impact of modifiable lifestyle and environmental cardiovascular disease risk factors.
The procedures to acquire fundus images and the analysis steps to obtain CRAE and CRVE are described. Coefficients of variation of repeated measures of CRAE and CRVE are less than 2% and within-rater reliability is very high. Using a panel study, the rapid response of the retinal vessel calibers to short-term changes in particulate air pollution, a known risk factor for cardiovascular mortality and morbidity, is reported. In conclusion, retinal imaging is proposed as a convenient and instrumental tool for epidemiological studies to study microvascular responses to cardiovascular disease risk factors.

Institutions: Georgia Institute of Technology & Emory University School of Medicine, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology.

Fibrin is an extracellular matrix protein that is responsible for maintaining the structural integrity of blood clots. Much research has been done on fibrin in the past years to include the investigation of synthesis, structure-function, and lysis of clots. However, there is still much unknown about the morphological and structural features of clots that ensue from patients with disease. In this research study, experimental techniques are presented that allow for the examination of morphological differences of abnormal clot structures due to diseased states such as diabetes and sickle cell anemia. Our study focuses on the preparation and evaluation of fibrin clots in order to assess morphological differences using various experimental assays and confocal microscopy. In addition, a method is also described that allows for continuous, real-time calculation of lysis rates in fibrin clots. The techniques described herein are important for researchers and clinicians seeking to elucidate comorbid thrombotic pathologies such as myocardial infarctions, ischemic heart disease, and strokes in patients with diabetes or sickle cell disease.

Ruminative brooding is associated with increased vulnerability to major depression. Individuals who regularly ruminate will often try to reduce the frequency of their negative thoughts by actively suppressing them. We aim to identify the neural correlates underlying thought suppression in at-risk and depressed individuals. Three groups of women were studied; a major depressive disorder group, an at-risk group (having a first degree relative with depression) and controls. Participants performed a mixed block-event fMRI paradigm involving thought suppression, free thought and motor control periods. Participants identified the re-emergence of “to-be-suppressed” thoughts (“popping” back into conscious awareness) with a button press. During thought suppression the control group showed the greatest activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, followed by the at-risk, then depressed group. During the re-emergence of intrusive thoughts compared to successful re-suppression of those thoughts, the control group showed the greatest activation of the anterior cingulate cortices, followed by the at-risk, then depressed group. At-risk participants displayed anomalies in the neural regulation of thought suppression resembling the dysregulation found in depressed individuals. The predictive value of these changes in the onset of depression remains to be determined.

The vascular endothelium is a monolayer of cells that cover the interior of blood vessels and provide both structural and functional roles. The endothelium acts as a barrier, preventing leukocyte adhesion and aggregation, as well as controlling permeability to plasma components. Functionally, the endothelium affects vessel tone.
Endothelial dysfunction is an imbalance between the chemical species which regulate vessel tone, thombroresistance, cellular proliferation and mitosis. It is the first step in atherosclerosis and is associated with coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease, heart failure, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia.
The first demonstration of endothelial dysfunction involved direct infusion of acetylcholine and quantitative coronary angiography. Acetylcholine binds to muscarinic receptors on the endothelial cell surface, leading to an increase of intracellular calcium and increased nitric oxide (NO) production. In subjects with an intact endothelium, vasodilation was observed while subjects with endothelial damage experienced paradoxical vasoconstriction.
There exists a non-invasive, in vivo method for measuring endothelial function in peripheral arteries using high-resolution B-mode ultrasound. The endothelial function of peripheral arteries is closely related to coronary artery function. This technique measures the percent diameter change in the brachial artery during a period of reactive hyperemia following limb ischemia.
This technique, known as endothelium-dependent, flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD) has value in clinical research settings. However, a number of physiological and technical issues can affect the accuracy of the results and appropriate guidelines for the technique have been published. Despite the guidelines, FMD remains heavily operator dependent and presents a steep learning curve. This article presents a standardized method for measuring FMD in the brachial artery on the upper arm and offers suggestions to reduce intra-operator variability.

Institutions: University of New Mexico, University of New Mexico, University of New Mexico, University of Lethbridge.

Alterations in social behavior are among the major negative consequences observed in children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs). Several independent laboratories have demonstrated robust alterations in the social behavior of rodents exposed to alcohol during brain development across a wide range of exposure durations, timing, doses, and ages at the time of behavioral quantification. Prior work from this laboratory has identified reliable alterations in specific forms of social interaction following moderate prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) in the rat that persist well into adulthood, including increased wrestling and decreased investigation. These behavioral alterations have been useful in identifying neural circuits altered by moderate PAE1, and may hold importance for progressing toward a more complete understanding of the neural bases of PAE-related alterations in social behavior. This paper describes procedures for performing moderate PAE in which rat dams voluntarily consume ethanol or saccharin (control) throughout gestation, and measurement of social behaviors in adult offspring.

Fagot & Paleressompoulle1 and Fagot & Bonte2 have published an automated learning device (ALDM) for the study of cognitive abilities of monkeys maintained in semi-free ranging conditions. Data accumulated during the last five years have consistently demonstrated the efficiency of this protocol to investigate individual/physical cognition in monkeys, and have further shown that this procedure reduces stress level during animal testing3. This paper demonstrates that networks of ALDM can also be used to investigate different facets of social cognition and in-group expressed behaviors in monkeys, and describes three illustrative protocols developed for that purpose. The first study demonstrates how ethological assessments of social behavior and computerized assessments of cognitive performance could be integrated to investigate the effects of socially exhibited moods on the cognitive performance of individuals. The second study shows that batteries of ALDM running in parallel can provide unique information on the influence of the presence of others on task performance. Finally, the last study shows that networks of ALDM test units can also be used to study issues related to social transmission and cultural evolution. Combined together, these three studies demonstrate clearly that ALDM testing is a highly promising experimental tool for bridging the gap in the animal literature between research on individual cognition and research on social cognition.

Institutions: NICHD/NIH/DHHS, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Wayne State University School of Medicine.

Pregnancy is characterized by the infiltration of leukocytes in the reproductive tissues and at the maternal-fetal interface (decidua basalis and decidua parietalis). This interface is the anatomical site of contact between maternal and fetal tissues; therefore, it is an immunological site of action during pregnancy. Infiltrating leukocytes at the maternal-fetal interface play a central role in implantation, pregnancy maintenance, and timing of delivery. Therefore, phenotypic and functional characterizations of these leukocytes will provide insight into the mechanisms that lead to pregnancy disorders. Several protocols have been described in order to isolate infiltrating leukocytes from the decidua basalis and decidua parietalis; however, the lack of consistency in the reagents, enzymes, and times of incubation makes it difficult to compare these results. Described herein is a novel approach that combines the use of gentle mechanical and enzymatic dissociation techniques to preserve the viability and integrity of extracellular and intracellular markers in leukocytes isolated from the human tissues at the maternal-fetal interface. Aside from immunophenotyping, cell culture, and cell sorting, the future applications of this protocol are numerous and varied. Following this protocol, the isolated leukocytes can be used to determine DNA methylation, expression of target genes, in vitro leukocyte functionality (i.e., phagocytosis, cytotoxicity, T-cell proliferation, and plasticity, etc.), and the production of reactive oxygen species at the maternal-fetal interface. Additionally, using the described protocol, this laboratory has been able to describe new and rare leukocytes at the maternal-fetal interface.

Reeves' muntjac deer (Muntiacus reevesi) are a small cervid species native to southeast Asia, and are currently being investigated as a potential model of prion disease transmission and pathogenesis. Vertical transmission is an area of interest among researchers studying infectious diseases, including prion disease, and these investigations require efficient methods for evaluating the effects of maternal infection on reproductive performance. Ultrasonographic examination is a well-established tool for diagnosing pregnancy and assessing fetal health in many animal species1-7, including several species of farmed cervids8-19, however this technique has not been described in Reeves' muntjac deer. Here we describe the application of transabdominal ultrasound to detect pregnancy in muntjac does and to evaluate fetal growth and development throughout the gestational period. Using this procedure, pregnant animals were identified as early as 35 days following doe-buck pairing and this was an effective means to safely monitor the pregnancy at regular intervals. Future goals of this work will include establishing normal fetal measurement references for estimation of gestational age, determining sensitivity and specificity of the technique for diagnosing pregnancy at various stages of gestation, and identifying variations in fetal growth and development under different experimental conditions.

Institutions: Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Arizona State University.

Societies of highly social animals feature vast lifespan differences between closely related individuals. Among social insects, the honey bee is the best established model to study how plasticity in lifespan and aging is explained by social factors.
The worker caste of honey bees includes nurse bees, which tend the brood, and forager bees, which collect nectar and pollen. Previous work has shown that brain functions and flight performance senesce more rapidly in foragers than in nurses. However, brain functions can recover, when foragers revert back to nursing tasks. Such patterns of accelerated and reversed functional senescence are linked to changed metabolic resource levels, to alterations in protein abundance and to immune function. Vitellogenin, a yolk protein with adapted functions in hormonal control and cellular defense, may serve as a major regulatory element in a network that controls the different aging dynamics in workers.
Here we describe how the emergence of nurses and foragers can be monitored, and manipulated, including the reversal from typically short-lived foragers into longer-lived nurses. Our representative results show how individuals with similar chronological age differentiate into foragers and nurse bees under experimental conditions. We exemplify how behavioral reversal from foragers back to nurses can be validated. Last, we show how different cellular senescence can be assessed by measuring the accumulation of lipofuscin, a universal biomarker of senescence.
For studying mechanisms that may link social influences and aging plasticity, this protocol provides a standardized tool set to acquire relevant sample material, and to improve data comparability among future studies.

The accurate quantification of peripheral neuropathy is important to define at risk patients, anticipate deterioration, and assess new therapies. Conventional methods assess neurological deficits and electrophysiology and quantitative sensory testing quantifies functional alterations to detect neuropathy. However, the earliest damage appears to be to the small fibres and yet these tests primarily assess large fibre dysfunction and have a limited ability to demonstrate regeneration and repair. The only techniques which allow a direct examination of unmyelinated nerve fibre damage and repair are sural nerve biopsy with electron microscopy and skin-punch biopsy. However, both are invasive procedures and require lengthy laboratory procedures and considerable expertise. Corneal Confocal microscopy is a non-invasive clinical technique which provides in-vivo imaging of corneal nerve fibres. We have demonstrated early nerve damage, which precedes loss of intraepidermal nerve fibres in skin biopsies together with stratification of neuropathic severity and repair following pancreas transplantation in diabetic patients. We have also demonstrated nerve damage in idiopathic small fibre neuropathy and Fabry's disease.

Institutions: University of Alberta, University of Illinois, University of Alberta, University of Alberta, University of Alberta, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The ability to gauge social interactions is crucial in the assessment of others’ intentions. Factors such as facial expressions and body language affect our decisions in personal and professional life alike 1. These "friend or foe" judgements are often based on first impressions, which in turn may affect our decisions to "approach or avoid". Previous studies investigating the neural correlates of social cognition tended to use static facial stimuli 2. Here, we illustrate an experimental design in which whole-body animated characters were used in conjunction with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) recordings. Fifteen participants were presented with short movie-clips of guest-host interactions in a business setting, while fMRI data were recorded; at the end of each movie, participants also provided ratings of the host behaviour. This design mimics more closely real-life situations, and hence may contribute to better understanding of the neural mechanisms of social interactions in healthy behaviour, and to gaining insight into possible causes of deficits in social behaviour in such clinical conditions as social anxiety and autism 3.

Institutions: University of California, San Francisco, University of Alberta, University of California, San Francisco, University of California, San Francisco.

Monochorionic (MC) twin pregnancies are associated with significantly higher morbidity and mortality rates than dichorionic twins. Approximately 50% of MC twin pregnancies develop complications arising from the shared placenta and associated vascular connections1. Severe twin-to-twin syndrome (TTTS) is reported to account for approximately 20% of these complications2,3. Inter-twin vascular connections occur in almost all MC placentas and are related to the prognosis and outcome of these high-risk twin pregnancies. The number, size and type of connections have been implicated in the development of TTTS and other MC twin conditions. Three types of inter-twin vascular connections occur: 1) artery to vein connections (AVs) in which a branch artery carrying deoxygenated blood from one twin courses along the fetal surface of the placenta and dives into a placental cotyledon. Blood flows via a deep intraparenchymal capillary network into a draining vein that emerges at the fetal surface of the placenta and brings oxygenated blood toward the other twin. There is unidirectional flow from the twin supplying the afferent artery toward the twin receiving the efferent vein; 2) artery to artery connections (AAs) in which a branch artery from each twin meets directly on the superficial placental surface resulting in a vessel with pulsatile bidirectional flow, and 3) vein to vein connections (VVs) in which a branch vein from each twin meets directly on the superficial placental surface allowing low pressure bidirectional flow. In utero obstetric sonography with targeted Doppler interrogation has been used to identify the presence of AV and AA connections4. Prenatally detected AAs that have been confirmed by postnatal placental injection studies have been shown to be associated with an improved prognosis for both twins5. Furthermore, fetoscopic laser ablation of inter-twin vascular connections on the fetal surface of the shared placenta is now the preferred treatment for early, severe TTTS.
Postnatal placental injection studies provide a valuable method to confirm the accuracy of prenatal Doppler ultrasound findings and the efficacy of fetal laser therapy6. Using colored dyes separately hand-injected into the arterial and venous circulations of each twin, the technique highlights and delineates AVs, AAs, and VVs. This definitive demonstration of MC placental vascular anatomy may then be correlated with Doppler ultrasound findings and neonatal outcome to enhance our understanding of the pathophysiology of MC twinning and its sequelae. Here we demonstrate our placental injection technique.

There has been a long-standing interest in the assessment of the neurobehavioral integrity of the newborn infant. The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS) was developed as an assessment for the at-risk infant. These are infants who are at increased risk for poor developmental outcome because of insults during prenatal development, such as substance exposure or prematurity or factors such as poverty, poor nutrition or lack of prenatal care that can have adverse effects on the intrauterine environment and affect the developing fetus. The NNNS assesses the full range of infant neurobehavioral performance including neurological integrity, behavioral functioning, and signs of stress/abstinence. The NNNS is a noninvasive neonatal assessment tool with demonstrated validity as a predictor, not only of medical outcomes such as cerebral palsy diagnosis, neurological abnormalities, and diseases with risks to the brain, but also of developmental outcomes such as mental and motor functioning, behavior problems, school readiness, and IQ. The NNNS can identify infants at high risk for abnormal developmental outcome and is an important clinical tool that enables medical researchers and health practitioners to identify these infants and develop intervention programs to optimize the development of these infants as early as possible. The video shows the NNNS procedures, shows examples of normal and abnormal performance and the various clinical populations in which the exam can be used.

Prenatal pulmonary delivery of cells, genes or pharmacologic agents could provide the basis for new therapeutic strategies for a variety of genetic and acquired diseases. Apart from congenital or inherited abnormalities with the requirement for long-term expression of the delivered gene, several non-inherited perinatal conditions, where short-term gene expression or pharmacological intervention is sufficient to achieve therapeutic effects, are considered as potential future indications for this kind of approach. Candidate diseases for the application of short-term prenatal therapy could be the transient neonatal deficiency of surfactant protein B causing neonatal respiratory distress syndrome1,2 or hyperoxic injuries of the neonatal lung3. Candidate diseases for permanent therapeutic correction are Cystic Fibrosis (CF)4, genetic variants of surfactant deficiencies5 and α1-antitrypsin deficiency6.
Generally, an important advantage of prenatal gene therapy is the ability to start therapeutic intervention early in development, at or even prior to clinical manifestations in the patient, thus preventing irreparable damage to the individual. In addition, fetal organs have an increased cell proliferation rate as compared to adult organs, which could allow a more efficient gene or stem cell transfer into the fetus. Furthermore, in utero gene delivery is performed when the individual's immune system is not completely mature. Therefore, transplantation of heterologous cells or supplementation of a non-functional or absent protein with a correct version should not cause immune sensitization to the cell, vector or transgene product, which has recently been proven to be the case with both cellular and genetic therapies7.
In the present study, we investigated the potential to directly target the fetal trachea in a mouse model. This procedure is in use in larger animal models such as rabbits and sheep8, and even in a clinical setting9, but has to date not been performed before in a mouse model. When studying the potential of fetal gene therapy for genetic diseases such as CF, the mouse model is very useful as a first proof-of-concept because of the wide availability of different transgenic mouse strains, the well documented embryogenesis and fetal development, less stringent ethical regulations, short gestation and the large litter size.
Different access routes have been described to target the fetal rodent lung, including intra-amniotic injection10-12, (ultrasound-guided) intrapulmonary injection13,14 and intravenous administration into the yolk sac vessels15,16 or umbilical vein17. Our novel surgical procedure enables researchers to inject the agent of choice directly into the fetal mouse trachea which allows for a more efficient delivery to the airways than existing techniques18.

Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues

Authors: Marcus Cheetham, Lutz Jancke.

Institutions: University of Zurich.

Mori's Uncanny Valley Hypothesis1,2 proposes that the perception of humanlike characters such as robots and, by extension, avatars (computer-generated characters) can evoke negative or positive affect (valence) depending on the object's degree of visual and behavioral realism along a dimension of human likeness (DHL) (Figure 1). But studies of affective valence of subjective responses to variously realistic non-human characters have produced inconsistent findings 3, 4, 5, 6. One of a number of reasons for this is that human likeness is not perceived as the hypothesis assumes. While the DHL can be defined following Mori's description as a smooth linear change in the degree of physical humanlike similarity, subjective perception of objects along the DHL can be understood in terms of the psychological effects of categorical perception (CP) 7. Further behavioral and neuroimaging investigations of category processing and CP along the DHL and of the potential influence of the dimension's underlying category structure on affective experience are needed. This protocol therefore focuses on the DHL and allows examination of CP. Based on the protocol presented in the video as an example, issues surrounding the methodology in the protocol and the use in "uncanny" research of stimuli drawn from morph continua to represent the DHL are discussed in the article that accompanies the video. The use of neuroimaging and morph stimuli to represent the DHL in order to disentangle brain regions neurally responsive to physical human-like similarity from those responsive to category change and category processing is briefly illustrated.

Institutions: Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science.

Diabetes mellitus currently affects 346 million individuals and this is projected to increase to 400 million by 2030. Evidence from both the laboratory and large scale clinical trials has revealed that diabetic complications progress unimpeded via the phenomenon of metabolic memory even when glycemic control is pharmaceutically achieved. Gene expression can be stably altered through epigenetic changes which not only allow cells and organisms to quickly respond to changing environmental stimuli but also confer the ability of the cell to "memorize" these encounters once the stimulus is removed. As such, the roles that these mechanisms play in the metabolic memory phenomenon are currently being examined.
We have recently reported the development of a zebrafish model of type I diabetes mellitus and characterized this model to show that diabetic zebrafish not only display the known secondary complications including the changes associated with diabetic retinopathy, diabetic nephropathy and impaired wound healing but also exhibit impaired caudal fin regeneration. This model is unique in that the zebrafish is capable to regenerate its damaged pancreas and restore a euglycemic state similar to what would be expected in post-transplant human patients. Moreover, multiple rounds of caudal fin amputation allow for the separation and study of pure epigenetic effects in an in vivo system without potential complicating factors from the previous diabetic state. Although euglycemia is achieved following pancreatic regeneration, the diabetic secondary complication of fin regeneration and skin wound healing persists indefinitely. In the case of impaired fin regeneration, this pathology is retained even after multiple rounds of fin regeneration in the daughter fin tissues. These observations point to an underlying epigenetic process existing in the metabolic memory state. Here we present the methods needed to successfully generate the diabetic and metabolic memory groups of fish and discuss the advantages of this model.

Exposure to chronic stress is a reliable predictor of depressive disorders, and social stress is a common ethologically relevant stressor in both animals and humans. However, many animal models of depression were developed in males and are not applicable or effective in studies of postpartum females. Recent studies have reported significant effects of chronic social stress during lactation, an ethologically relevant and effective stressor, on maternal behavior, growth, and behavioral neuroendocrinology. This manuscript will describe this chronic social stress paradigm using repeated exposure of a lactating dam to a novel male intruder, and the assessment of the behavioral, physiological, and neuroendocrine effects of this model. Chronic social stress (CSS) is a valuable model for studying the effects of stress on the behavior and physiology of the dam as well as her offspring and future generations. The exposure of pups to CSS can also be used as an early life stress that has long term effects on behavior, physiology, and neuroendocrinology.

Institutions: University Hospital Zurich, EMPA Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research, University of Bern.

Decades ago the human placenta was thought to be an impenetrable barrier between mother and unborn child. However, the discovery of thalidomide-induced birth defects and many later studies afterwards proved the opposite. Today several harmful xenobiotics like nicotine, heroin, methadone or drugs as well as environmental pollutants were described to overcome this barrier. With the growing use of nanotechnology, the placenta is likely to come into contact with novel nanoparticles either accidentally through exposure or intentionally in the case of potential nanomedical applications. Data from animal experiments cannot be extrapolated to humans because the placenta is the most species-specific mammalian organ 1. Therefore, the ex vivo dual recirculating human placental perfusion, developed by Panigel et al. in 1967 2 and continuously modified by Schneider et al. in 1972 3, can serve as an excellent model to study the transfer of xenobiotics or particles.
Here, we focus on the ex vivo dual recirculating human placental perfusion protocol and its further development to acquire reproducible results.
The placentae were obtained after informed consent of the mothers from uncomplicated term pregnancies undergoing caesarean delivery. The fetal and maternal vessels of an intact cotyledon were cannulated and perfused at least for five hours. As a model particle fluorescently labelled polystyrene particles with sizes of 80 and 500 nm in diameter were added to the maternal circuit. The 80 nm particles were able to cross the placental barrier and provide a perfect example for a substance which is transferred across the placenta to the fetus while the 500 nm particles were retained in the placental tissue or maternal circuit. The ex vivo human placental perfusion model is one of few models providing reliable information about the transport behavior of xenobiotics at an important tissue barrier which delivers predictive and clinical relevant data.

Institutions: Wayne State University School of Medicine, The University of Adelaide, Wayne State University School of Medicine, NICHD/NIH/DHHS.

Immune tolerance in pregnancy requires that the immune system of the mother undergoes distinctive changes in order to accept and nurture the developing fetus. This tolerance is initiated during coitus, established during fecundation and implantation, and maintained throughout pregnancy. Active cellular and molecular mediators of maternal-fetal tolerance are enriched at the site of contact between fetal and maternal tissues, known as the maternal-fetal interface, which includes the placenta and the uterine and decidual tissues. This interface is comprised of stromal cells and infiltrating leukocytes, and their abundance and phenotypic characteristics change over the course of pregnancy. Infiltrating leukocytes at the maternal-fetal interface include neutrophils, macrophages, dendritic cells, mast cells, T cells, B cells, NK cells, and NKT cells that together create the local micro-environment that sustains pregnancy. An imbalance among these cells or any inappropriate alteration in their phenotypes is considered a mechanism of disease in pregnancy. Therefore, the study of leukocytes that infiltrate the maternal-fetal interface is essential in order to elucidate the immune mechanisms that lead to pregnancy-related complications. Described herein is a protocol that uses a combination of gentle mechanical dissociation followed by a robust enzymatic disaggregation with a proteolytic and collagenolytic enzymatic cocktail to isolate the infiltrating leukocytes from the murine tissues at the maternal-fetal interface. This protocol allows for the isolation of high numbers of viable leukocytes (>70%) with sufficiently conserved antigenic and functional properties. Isolated leukocytes can then be analyzed by several techniques, including immunophenotyping, cell sorting, imaging, immunoblotting, mRNA expression, cell culture, and in vitro functional assays such as mixed leukocyte reactions, proliferation, or cytotoxicity assays.

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